Recent reviews by Phantom

What an incredible game! I couldn't believe how much fun I had with this for how little I ended up paying for it. Can't recommend this game more!

I'd been waiting for this ever since my fiance showed me the trailer. I was very surprised to see that it was F2P. I instantly installed and played through it, and I am now mad that I've got to (hopefully) wait for more. Thanks for the fun! I can't believe this was a two-man team!

Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 are two of my favorite games of all time. Baldur's Gate 3 more than lives up to its predecessors.


Still awesome!

One of the best.

Everything that a remake/remaster should be!

Excellent remaster! This is 100% what every single remaster should strive to be.

Gameplay
The gameplay is one of the two strongest areas in Kathy Rain. It plays like a classic point and click adventure but doesn’t have any on the normal downsides. You won’t find any pixel hunting or nonsensical puzzles in this game. The tooltips that appear with items and the game's way of interacting with objects allows you to interact with a lot of things on the screen but helps the most important ones stand out. None of the puzzles that you’ll encounter require any sort of off the wall thinking either. They can all be solved with a little attention and perseverance, and if you seem to be stuck Kathy will help by dropping hint.

Graphics
The game’s graphics are its second strong point. Taking cues from classic 90s point-and-click games like Full Throttle and Gabriel Knight the game boasts an impressive pixel art style. The locations in the game all look excellent and the dreary gloominess of the outdoor areas plays great against the more brightly lit and colorful indoor areas. Even the large character portraits shown during dialogue look great.

Music/Sound
Music is one area that I feel that game falls short. It isn’t bad, just not very memorable or helpful in adding to the atmosphere of the game at all. There is even an achievement you get for letting the travel music loop and I still couldn’t hum that song for you. The voiceovers on the other hand are fantastic! I went into this game as I do with most games from smaller studios expecting the voice acting to not be well done, however, Kathy Rain does an excellent job. Kathy’s interactions with other characters and the dialogue she has with herself while examining and using items sound great and natural.

Story/Writing
The story in Kathy Rain is a great mix of paranormal and mystery and handles them both very well. The way the paranormal aspects intertwines with the “real-life” mystery aspect is handled very well. It falls short in the last chapter however and leans too heavily into the paranormal aspect of the tale. I think it would have benefited from an extra chapter to help tie up both sides a little more smoothly. The writing on the other hand is great and all the interactions with Kathy and the other characters are fun and interesting. Every character has their own unique personality and Kathy herself is very memorable.



Final Thoughts
Overall, I thought Kathy Rain was an excellent game and is exactly what the more current generation of point-and-click games should strive to be. With only a small handful of flaws that are easily ignored this game is a must-play for any point-and-click adventure fan. If this is what Clifftop Games gives us on their first outing, I look forward to seeing what they can do in the future.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2116842064

The Adventure Game Enthusiast

Gameplay
At first glance, Keepsake appears to be a normal “Quest” type point-and-click adventure game. However, with only a handful of characters in the game and no inventory puzzles it honestly plays more like a 3rd person Myst clone. This isn’t a bad thing necessarily; however, it is something to keep in mind if you aren’t looking for a Myst “clone”. The only two points of contention I really have with the gameplay is the insane amounts of walking all over the games huge castle, and the difficulty ramp of some of the final puzzles. A fast travel mechanic of some kind would have cut the playtime in half. Most of the puzzles aren’t to difficult, but there are a few that force you to run back and forth and a couple that was much much harder than the rest. This is slightly mitigated by the in-game tiered hint system, which allows for varying degrees of help from the hints up to the game completing the puzzle for you.

Graphics
For the time of its release, the visuals for the game were fairly good. The lower and upper levels of the castle as well as the grounds outside all looked great and the short cutscenes after solving some puzzles were really nice. However, there are two areas where the game loses some steam in the graphics department. The character models are as clean as the rest of the game, and their animations can be odd at times. Also, the flashbacks that are told using still images and voiceovers sometimes look like the stuff of nightmares with the child characters look deformed.

Music/Sound
The music was one of the highpoints in the game, it’s very relaxing and does a nice job setting the tone even if it doesn’t play all the time. In fact, the music being absent for large chunks adds to the emptiness of the castle and doesn’t detract from the game at all in my opinion. The sound does tend to suffer a bit in the voice acting department. Most lines aren’t delivered well, and even Nolan North doesn’t do that great of a job. Going subtitles only may be a good idea with this one.

Story/Atmosphere
The story in Keepsake isn’t anything exceptionally groundbreaking, but what it does it does well. The themes of loss and loneliness are handled well. Coupled with the music and the sheer size of the empty castle it can be quite somber at times. I also don’t feel like the game was hindered in any way by not having a large cast of characters. The few characters you meet do their job of moving the story along well, and your sidekick Zak isn’t actually that bad to have around for most of the game.


Final Thoughts
Overall, I thought Keepsake was a decent game with just a few things holding it back. A larger budget, a more experienced studio, or even just more time in development might have helped it along. I’m still happy with what I played, and for only 99 cents on Steam, you’d be dumb not to at least give it a try.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2115160400

The Adventure Game Enthusiast

Truly and all time classic! Everyone should play this game at least once.

This is one of the greatest games of all time! Sure the graphics don't hold up all that great, but there are some awesome mods that help with that.